I am trying to do a simple slideshow with about 200 photos (~10Mpixels each). I was able to create a project with all these assets in the project bin and loaded onto a timeline. However, whenever I try to reopen this project, it will start to load the media, counting down, then consistently hangs when it gets down from 200 to around 100. The title bar says Premiere is "Not Responding". I have 6GB RAM, have paging files on 2 drives totalling 24GB, lots of empty space on my project drive, fast CPU and GPU. The project loading seems pretty consistent in loading only a certain number of media and then hangs. ONCE I was able to load everything and then I was able to work on the project just fine. But going back again, Premiere hangs during loading of media. I've tried reboots, cold boots, and clearing media cache, but still no joy. Anyone with ideas?

Make sure all antivirus software is off. You may need to temporarily uninstall your AVS to isolate if it is interfering. Also make sure when you open your premiere pro pjt you don't touch anything. Just let it load. Don't touch your keyboard or mouse.

Try deleting all your preview files from the preview folder. And make sure you delete any cache files from this project.

After you've done that then try to open the project. You need to watch carefully to see if you have some corrupt file or something wrong with one of the media files you are loading.

By the way, if you can't remember where your preview files are, open up a new prpro pjt and look under project settings, scratch disks and your last settings should still be there.

If that doesn't solve it, then try opening a new project and then import your old project/sequence into your new project and see if that doesn't solve it. If the problem persists after that you more than likely have some corrupt media possibly.

Though the Scaling algorithms in CS5 are said to have been improved over previous versions, I still feel that one has more control over quality by Scaling in PS, and also more options on the Scaling algorithm used. Also, over-sized images, that must be Scaled in PrPro, will add to the processing overhead on the computer. If you do have over-sized images, this ARTICLE might offer some useful tips.

If you are compelled to use over-sized images, then you might want to list the full system details, as there might be an issue there.

Thanks for replying with some solid ideas. Here are some more details: I have about 211 Photoshop Images that are all about 3800 x 2600 pixels. I imported them into Premiere and scaled down in PPro (to 1920x1080) so this is an area I will look into more (ie scale down in Photoshop first).

But as now stands, the PPro project starts loading and shows "Loaded xxxx.psd (yyy remaining)" It ALWAYS hangs when it gets down to 116 remainging. So I went through the corrupt file approach. I noted the file that was hanging and checked--it was fine. I even renamed it so that PPro couldn't find it and allowed me to skip this file. Guess what--the loading process went down to 115 remaining (having loaded the exact same number of files after skipping one). So it's as if there is a hard (and not graceful) limit as to the number of assets that can be loaded! I also tried opening a new project and importing all the files from my original project. Exactly the same problem--the new project initially imports all the files. But on reopening this new project, it also hangs at 116 remaining.

Any other suggestions? I will try the scale down in PS idea (but it was a LOT easier to use PPro to scale down 1 picture and copy it's attributes to the other 200+ images and tweak as needed.

I admit that when I make a slideshow, I never want to zoom, scan, or whatever in the slides, so I always scale in Photoshop first to the Blu-ray or DVD dimensions. Saving as .png saves Encore, which I use for slideshows as it permits manual slide change, doing a lot of encoding too.

I create an action to do this automatically, and also set the white and black limits to the TV settings. It is best to convert portrait and landscape formats separately.

I agree. The portrait images will require some additional editing work, if one is filling the horizontal Frame Size with the vertical image.

Another treatment is outlined in this TUTORIAL.That treatment goes a bit far for some, and either a Color Matte, or similar background, can be used, with the full portrait image being used, with "background" showing on both sides, like a pillar-box.

Good luck,

Hunt

PS - when I do need to Pan on a Zoomed out image, I Scale it to just what I need. In a SlideShow, I might end up with, say 90% Scaled to the exact Frame Size, and the rest might be in a few different sizes, as is needed.

Sorry that didn't help you out. I think I had run into a similar problem some time ago where I had been doing a ton of pans and zooms in Premiere and I was never happy with the results but I do remember having similar problems of the project not liking a lot of it. I was doing a lot more images than you are doing. And I had definite problems with premiere accepting huge images. (Sometimes in After Effects too!)

Nonetheless, without investigating the situation further, I had switched my workflow back then to using photoshop to get me to a good workable size and then doing those "pans" and "zooms" (whether you are scaling or setting up a camera layer and moving the camera in and out) in After Effects and importing as AVIs to premiere (with all effects rendered in the AVI from After Effects) and haven't ever gone back to trying to do them in Premiere -- except when I'm in a rush and I have to quickly do one or two!

I've had much better results quality and consistency-wise with premiere as a result. Don't know why, but it certainly cuts down on the amount of work premiere has to do in the timeline. I can't say that is the solution, but I am sure one of these guys here will help you out soon. Stick with it! Good luck!

Not sure about that. I have an SD Project with 3000+ stills, mostly sized to 720 x 480, though some larger. Almost every image has Pans & Zooms on them. There are also hundreds of MOV, AVI files and tons of Titles. The total Duration is right at 9 hours, with 23 Sequences (will probably go to at least 25 Sequences, before done). Fairly large Project.

Even with this on a FW-800 external, the load time is only about 2 - 4 minutes. So far, no issues loading the Project.

Hey that's good to know. I tend to use AE as I have bigger toolset and do alot more keyframing and layering anyway. But I'll give it a try on CS 5 next time I have the chance. I try to prepare my media consistently as best I can before my edit so I can just concentrate on my editing and pacing in Premiere and then in my timeline I deal with consistency issues such as color grading from shot to shot, minor scaling, etc. Whatever that is worth!

In the case of this Project, there are few Layers, other than some Lower-third-type Titles. Most Titles are full-screen, and only a few have Layer animation from Layered PSD Sequences. It's large and long, but not really intricate.

Also, in this particular case, the majority of the stills were done by others, and all that I have to go with are their JPEG's. For all new material, I am using my PSD's. I was not involved, when the 1,000's of scans were done. They were supposedly in TIFF, and then manipulated in PSD, but all of those were lost in the process, so only the output JPEG's remained. Not my personal preference, but to re-do all those scans from archival material, 8 states away, was just not an option here.

Like you, I try to get everything in the exact form that I will use in PrPro, and only feed it things that it likes. Same for when I go to Encore to author. I seldom bother with the "File Types for Import," and just go with what works best. So far, no issues. I keep it simple and probably boring to many, but seldom have issues.

Last time that I broke my own "rules," and Imported a handful of WMV's (though supported), 'cause I was stupid and lazy, I paid the price. The Project choked even my workstation, and the Export was going to be months (well, maybe not months, but you get the idea). I bit-the-bullet, just converted those evil WMV's, and rebuilt the rather simple Project. That took far less time than what the Export was likely to take - job done, workflow re-enforced, and egg finally wiped off my face.

Thanks to all who have replied with suggestions/ideas. Here's my latest. I went thru all my original psd files and reduced the images from ~3800x2700 down to 1920x1080 and saved it as the same file name (I obviously backed up my originals first). With the same file names now representing much smaller images, I tried to open my same project again. Exactly the same problem--the media loading process went much faster, but at "116 remaining", PPro would hang again. It sure acts like I hit some kind of number of media limit (which others have replied had much more assets). So I'm at a loss except to start all over again, with smaller files and smaller projects, exporting to some intermediate file (wmv?) which I then need to combine in the end. This is stupid--the project is only a couple hundred psd files, very limited transitions (cross dissolves and a couple of zoom/pans) for a total of ~12mins! Trouble is I can't load it again!! There's got to be a better answer. Anyone??

Problem resolved. The problem seems to be that the Loading media message at the bottom of the project goes down to "116 remaining" and freezes at that message until everything is loaded! I discovered this accidentally when I tried loading and got called away. When I came back, the project was fully loaded! With a stopwatch, here's what happened: Project open and started loading media (from "212 remaining" down to "116 remaining" took 1:09 minutes. It then stayed at that message for the next 2 1/2 minutes until the next message saying all media loaded (for a total of 3:22 minutes to load). I'm not unhappy with the total load time (well sure I wish it was faster), by was thrown off when loading message froze.

So moral of story is don't believe everything you see...try giving it more time.

Glad that you got to the bottom of this. Considering the great number of files in the above cited Project, I could not imagine a limit, as you were encountering. Now, mine WERE SD (720 x 480), and not HD, but still the number of files would indicate, to me, that any limit was WAY up there.

Not sure why the hang on the error message. I would have reacted, just like you, and wondered what the heck was happening. Error messages can be odd things, indeed. If they are so cryptic, as to not be decipherable in the least, they seem to mean something. If they make an easy to understand statement, they often can be ignored... or that is how it sometimes seems.

I'll have to tuck that message away, for someone having the same issue - go get a cup of coffee, and come back in a few minutes, as things might be better than they seem. I'll recommend decaf, in case things are NOT better, than they seem.

Thanks for reporting, and glad that you did not have to redo the Project.

In my defense, the times I quoted in my previous entry were for the assets that I scaled down outside PPro. Realizing that the project will eventually load, I went back to my original problem project and here's what happened: From project start (loading media xxx with 213 remaining) down to 116 remaining took 3:22 minutes. The loading message then froze at 116 remaining for the next 4 minutes. After 7:30 minutes, the message changed to all media loaded. No wonder I thought Premiere hung up on me!

This got me thinking and experimenting. I made a PS file that was 1920x1080 pixels and made 200 copies of it (all with unique filenames). Then I create several projects, one with 100 of these files called Test100, another with 117 of these files called Test117, another called Test150, and another called Test200. Guess what I found out?

4) This forum is great. Thanks for all who took the time to reply and come up with some great ideas that while not directly addressing my problem, were great ideas never-the-less (making a background for stills--nifty!!)

Interesting findings, and thank you for both taking the time to test, and then to report on the tests.

At one time, I would have responded - Adobe is not listening here, and suggested a Bug Report, BUT times have changed in a very good way. Adobe IS listening, and in a very big way. It seems that the "progress dialog" might need a tweak.

Now, I have to admit that I take all progress bars with a grain of salt. I've had them (all sorts of programs) say 15 sec. left, only to wait more than a minute. I've had them state 5 mins. left, only to complete in seconds. Progress bars seem to have a lot of latitude. At the very best, they are a general suggestion only. Now, in your cited case, there does appear to be a hang at 97 Assets, and the progress bar ceases to function any more, though the work IS being done. Could be a simple tweak of the code, or maybe not.

In the end, Adobe is now listening, and I feel certain that someone will look into this. Whether they can exact a fix, or when, will remain to be seen. With your hard work, we are now armed to help others (as will your thread), so we can just say, "go get a cup of coffee, relax for a moment, and then come back to find that the Assets DID load. Thanks for the post.

The best way to tell us about problems is to file a bug report. The forum is great for figuring out workarounds, but it's not great for putting the right information in front of the software engineers and testers who will actually fix the underlying problems.

If you have any files that are not native camera files, like PSD, move them to a new sub folder and then open your project. When Premiere loads the files a window will pop up asking where the clips are. Click "skip all" and your project will open and all of the other media will populate.

Once opened, move the files back to the original folder. Then click on each clip in your time line that is missing & on the menu click: Clip, Replace footage... then click on the missing clip name. Once you have finished doing this for all of your clips save the project.

You will likely need to do this each time you reload your project.

This issue seems to have something to do with PhotoshopServer.exe which is used to read PSD files into Premiere. Usually it will be one or 2 files that Premiere or PhotoshopServer.exe is not happy with and that will freeze the loading of media into your project.